The Griffins entered Saturday night’s game against the Peoria
Rivermen ranked 27th out of 29 teams in the American Hockey League.
They had given up 22 goals on their opponents’ 102 power-play chances,
a success rate of just 78.4 percent.

But those numbers may be starting to turn around. In a 2-1 loss to
Rockford on Friday night, Grand Rapids killed all four of the IceHogs’
power plays.

And in a 4-1 win against Peoria at Van Andel Arena, the Griffins
were even better. They killed all three of the Rivermen’s power plays,
and only surrendered two total shots on goal in the process.

It was the third consecutive game that the Griffins haven’t given up goal when they have a player in the penalty box.

"We needed start taking a little more pride in it," Griffins coach
Curt Fraser said. "It wasn’t like we were bad, we just weren’t real
good. It seemed like every shot they took for a long time there went
in."

Grand Rapids was burned by two particularly poor games. The Griffins
gave up five power-play goals to the Lake Erie Monsters on Nov. 8 -- a
game Grand Rapids still managed to win 8-6 -- and four power-play goals
to the San Antonio Rampage in a 7-2 loss on Oct. 18.

Grand Rapids forward Patrick Rissmiller said turning the penalty
kill unit around is a process, and the team needs to continue to stick
with its system.

"We’ve put a lot of focus on special teams, especially the kill,"
Rissmiller said. "If you want to be successful in this league, you’ve
got to have a good power play and a good penalty kill, and I think
we’re coming around a little bit."

It’s been especially frustrating for a team whose own power play is ranked third in the league.

Fraser said he’s found some pairings that have helped the penalty
kill, and the defensemen are doing a better job of clearing the puck.

But the players also know they need to continue to work and improve throughout the rest of the season.

"We just did like two mistakes a game, and it always cost us goals,"
forward Jan Mursak said. "We were working on it in practices and we
started blocking more shots. I think that was really important."